Ugh. So this is mostly a rant, kind of a 'lets see if we can fix it'. My arena sucks... but I can't complain because it was free free free, my dad was 'gifted' with as much really nice sand as he wanted, as long as we cleaned out the rocks and... shells :lol: and we have, that's fine, but we never did it 'properly' so it doesn't drain well at ALL. There is a circle in the middle that is perfectly dry... figures, so I guess there's going to be lots of lungeing and / or circle work, otherwise it's one big solid puddle, deep enough to submerge his hooves and part of his boots, get him stuck in the mud. UGH. It's worse in two corners than other parts, and it doest help that we've had a huge bout of horrid weather. AND it doesn't help that we don't have a proper harrow, we use a backhoe to spread the sand out but that leaves big tire prints which fill with water or create raised portions.

I'm incredibly lucky to have an arena at all! I'm glad my dad was able to do it for me, but he isn't a horsey person and nothing was done 'right', the sand is too deep in some parts (way way too deep) and there isn't enough in other parts and then the drainage thing. Gah.

So anyway, to turn this into a productive thread- any 'do it yourself' type 'harrows'. We have the equipment to drag something, but I'm not sure what to do to create something effective.

Could too MUCH sand create drainage issues? Do you think it would help if we took some sand out? How deep should arena sand be?

Annnnd is there anything I can add to the spots with really crappy drainage? Anything that might help?

Mochachino

12-20-2012 10:53 AM

Did you put down some drainage rock/crush before the sand? There needs to be somewhere for the water to go. More sand won't help.

Muppetgirl

12-20-2012 11:25 AM

Harrowing will help......however if the drainage or sloping of the arena is not right, you will still have puddles and sloppy areas. The sloping should be ever so slight, but enough to cause the ground to have a run off.

What is the base made out of? If its dry in the middle there must be a hump there. It sounds like it needs to be stripped, the base needs to be leveled and sloped properly and the sand re-layed and groomed.

Have you looked around for some proper harrows? In Alberta here you can pretty much find them at farm auctions or some farmers have 3 or 4 sets just laying around the place........